“Yesterday it was my birthday, I hung one more year on the line,I should be depressed, my life’s a messBut I’m having a good time.” (P.Simon)

Ah it’s always good to have some Paul Simon to cheer ones day. It was my birthday yesterday, but my life isn’t really a mess, and I am indeed having a good time.

I realised this weekend, afresh, my love of music and need of it in my life. Thoughts that were spurred on by the genius REM gig in Hyde Park. Music is the backdrop of my life, in fact you can probably trace my mood on any given day to the music playing on my stereo. I love providing the right music at the right times for my friends.

I’m fairly indiscriminate as to who I ascribe my love to when it comes to music. There are a few qualities the songs have to have. They have to melt my insides. Take me by the heart and lead me away to dance, to cry, to feel… to feel… You know, I can’t describe it, the almost mystical quality that music works in the inside of me. The strange thing is that a wide variety of musicians and bands can do this to me. I’m not sure how that happens. It seems that the stuff in the music seems to connect with stuff inside me and I shiver inside. Of course there is a vast amount of music in my collection that doesn’t do that deep work inside me. And the different times and moods of my life are connected to in different ways by different songs. But there are a few songs that can leave me breathless.

The weird thing is, and possibly the hardest thing to come to terms with is that the songs that do that to me, mostly don’t do it to others. Testament to the uniqueness of us all? Just occasionally I’ll find a song with a friend that gets us both. Those are good times. Souls entwining?

It’s a hard thing to put into words, this impact music has on our lives. I guess it’s a short cut to expressing the deep inner stuff of our souls. A release of emotions that would be impossible to articulate in any other way, a gift to experience the stuff we cannot say in words. And that’s maybe why we get so defensive when it comes to defending our music taste. If a song has touched us deep inside, how can someone rubbish it and dismiss it so easily.

Of course, there must be limits. Does Peter Andre’s singing really touch anyone deep inside? Answers on a postcard please.

A small afterthought. Reading through this I realised I ought to reference the ‘touch me deep inside’ phrase on endless repeat in this entry. Clearly robbed from “something touched me deep inside, the day the music died…” (From the classic American Pie)